Didn’t hit him in the face though did he?

No he didn’t! He strunk him with his elbow. Look at where his elbow stops. It was nowhere near his face.

Piss off. Just because you’re salty at getting beaten, stop deflecting with faux offense. Lee wasn’t offended but you are outraged? A bloke gets a pretty pathetic elbow to the chest and you’re calling for citings?
I’m not sure rugby is for you.

What do you reckon he was trying to do (if you’ve watched O’Flashearty’s linked vine)?

EDIT: I see you’ve already kinda answered that.

As for “heat of the moment” regarding his “gypsy” comment – not a great excuse. Don’t all these things happen in the “heat of the moment”?

Marler will likely get a ban, and I’m certainly not going to cry about it. I made my view pretty clear earlier on the thread, I don’t think it’s racist but I do think it was inappropriate. What irks is the faux outrage by (weirdly enough) welsh fans when the man himself wasn’t bothered. It’s just deflection to ease the pain of a loss. Sledging happens in rugby. A player was recently fined for calling someone “faggot”. Marler will get what’s coming to him but that elbow was pathetic.

No. It’s not. It’s really not. It’s about wanting rugby to retain the high standards which make it the sport it is.

DD has it , no sanction for either incident .

He can play on Saturday .

Racism has no place in sport. That you choose to disagree is up to you. Wrong, but up to you.

Your HO is wrong.

Gatts and Lee are two lucky boys getting away with such an irresponsible use of the term banter. What is rugby coming to. The players sorted it out among themselves at half time. Appalling behaviour

Given that the ‘victim’ has effectively said “we sorted it out like adults, but thanks for your concern”, I would suspect so.

While far from a perfect outcome, I do think it’s preferable to an alternative where Lee whined about it in the press for days and a huge ban was handed out to someone who tried to rectify the issue as soon as he realised there was a problem. You don’t need a sledgehammer to crack every walnut…

The fact it was potentially racist has been highlighted. In immediately apologising and also being reprimanded by his management, it has also been dealt with quickly and effectively. The potential penalty for any future racist offence has been highlighted as a deterrent.

It’ll be joubert. I’ll wager he’s been told to look at things carefully and err on the side of caution if in doubt review it later when someone can hold his hand through complicated bits. Was pretty much the pattern through the game.

Punch was pathetic just means French front row know who to niggle to get a reaction.

There is a massive difference between being racially abused and being abused due to a lifestyle, or did I miss the bit about traveller history where they were sold into slavery, murdered, burned and segregated, and in some cases still are now?
Sorry but there is a world of difference between the two, like really huge.

You might want to look at what happened to the Romany community in Europe in the 2nd World War….

I think the disciplinary discussion about Marler went something like “c’mon chaps there’s a Grand Slam on dontcha know… when will be the next time they get a chance….. and do we even know who the replacement is… best sort this from around 10pm on Saturday… if at all”

This was my first thought too. If we see them get punished for similar things then can we officially rename “New Zealand rules” 😉

You missed a bit.

I do think saying it’s OK cos it was in the heat of the moment is an odd reason for not sanctioning.

Anyway, anyone else disappointed that Gatland hasn’t taken the chance to bring more young players in for the Italy game? The next World Cup is just around the corner…..

To be fair, we’ve all twatted somebody and followed it up with a bit of ethnic abuse in the heat of the moment.

Have you never ever said anything you later regretted?

Yeas, but the press and ‘campaigners’ need something to latch on and create a massive storm. It wasn’t big and clever, but it appears to have been resolved like adults which was enough for the powers that be. Time to move on?